A good friend of ours many years ago said if you go to champagne you must stay at Les Crayères. It stuck with me and when we planned this trip we took that advice for 6 nights. Great advice. I’m completely charmed. I travel a lot for work and this is in my top hotels ever. Partially for the welcome.

First night in Champagne after a bit of travel around Paris to pick up some wines and so it was nice to take a little jaunt down the hill to the restaurant on property. We were managing between a fish for two and a steak for two and probably were a bit easier on the later than the former but all great wines.

One of the visits I was most excited for and it didn’t disappoint at all. We’ve drunk these back to the 90’s but it’s very hard to find that wine. One I’ve quietly been building up. A truly excellent visit and a great way to start our stay.

Funny because I thought I’d avoided this restaurant since I hadn’t heard the best things about the food although the view is pretty stunning. Actually we only sort of got the view as it was chilly and rainy so we were sitting inside but we enjoyed each of the items we had.

One day we are going to grab a bottle of Champagne Charlie and watch Champagne Charlie on Netflix I think it is now. It’s a wine I always enjoy. The old ones are rare-ish but delicious. The focus of the house is a champagne I will bring to more laid back events or give friends. It’s a wine I’d be very happy for them to open with me. Prob the BdB is a bit more of a strength but I like them all.

It’s a wine list that makes you want to say ‘yes’ and so every day we tried to get a few more ones to try. Along with those little brown sugar cookies. I will definitely miss those.

It was our hotel restaurant where we also have breakfast every morning and while a nice room it doesn’t make me think multiple Michelin stars. The food really does though. It was really super. Wine was perfect. Service was exceptional. Many great restaurants and I think this might be too overlooked. As I look back at the meals we had over the entire trip this was a real favorite of mine in the quality of what we ate.

One of the surprises of the trip for me. I knew I liked the wine but I’d maybe had the base NV and thought good. I was more than charmed by this place. It is wine that has bubbles. Very thoughtful in how they approach the wine. Like some others they bottle at a lower pressure and I find that I do like that style. It’s a wine that we will certainly be keeping a better look out for.

This was a contender for our meal of the trip in the less formal style. It was truly wonderful with the open flame cooking. Some of the best escargot I’ve ever tried. Both lamb and cote du boeuf excellent. Not light by any means, but very good.

I’d never heard of this producer before but it was recommended by the hotel that we were staying at. It’s a very reasonably priced place. Busy on the day we were there. Looks like it was a mix of ppl who had booked or who dropped in. Bigger production than I would have guessed (around 80k). Interesting to try.

Encore the drinking. Great to get a chance to try something that we heard quite lovely comments about but which was not part of our tasting of the Grand Crus. This was truly lovely.

When we were at a La Fete event with Barbara Sandrone I think back in 2022 I was sitting next to someone who had been to champagne and felt quite strongly this was the best restaurant and one that we had to go to so we made the reservation. Not what I was expecting but exactly the right style for the evening. It’s mostly a fish shop and then in the back there are some tables and you can get some oysters, etc. Great champagne list. Light and easy which was a nice counterpoint to the heavier meats at lunch and a pleasant walk into the city.

The story for this winery is just fascinating and so while I’d say it was a bit of an odd experience since we were with a bunch of other folks and all at maybe slightly different levels of interest (read geekiness) of wine I really enjoyed understanding a bit more about the house. I’d met the winemaker at La Fete a few years ago and he was great and quite passionate. This was a house that operated under the same family until 2010 when the father passed and the daughters were not as interested in joining the business. So many of the vineyards were sold to others and then two American businessmen formed a venture with a few Frenchmen and brought the brand and the one remaining vineyard and have been investing their way there ever since. Amazing because the original owner turned the vineyards organic in 1960 and then biodynamic in 1980 and that philosophy has continued forward. They seem to be constantly pushing the boundaries of what can/should be done in wine with lots of new fermentation vehicles (titanium, gold, glass) that I’ve never seen before and most everything that you have already seen others play with (ceramic, concrete) in addition to oak and stainless steel. And testing the blending that can come across those.

The Abyss project is also quite interesting and while I’m not sure that I truly believe in the impact we were intrigued enough to get a bottle to test.

I think it says something that just about everyone who you mention Arnaud Lallement (I hope I got that right)’s name to says wonderful things about the man. Who is as a person. What he’s managed to do with his restaurant which is just in his backyard now. The level of generosity. And the way that he has very much made the effort to support champagne and whether it’s more well known houses like Krug or growers he has a list that is hard to rival and he clearly prices it so you will take advantage of the region you are drinking in. Also - the food is just delicious. I think it has to win best meal of our trip. Very glad we did lunch - we were there close to 5 hours I think.

You have to give it to Les Crayeres who got to know us quite well and were quick to bring the cookies and the champagne list and ensured that we actually did get to make quite a reasonable dent in the ones we were most interested in getting to try.

Snobby statement but some years ago we pretty much confined our VCP drinking to the LGD and ideally to the ones with age and we quite like those and so there was a bit of trepidation on this visit but also a recognition that they make wine that we really enjoy. I’d also over the years heard stories about how much the La Grande Dame really did for Champagne and so I was intrigued to hear the story. For sure this is a big house (maybe the biggest?) but they did a truly amazing job putting together a tour and show and multi-sensory experience to feel like you really understand how champagne works and all of the great contributions that came from one of the original owners of the house (riddling, rose assemblage as a method, vintage).

What a really wonderful treat! The hotel is just stunning (we had it to ourselves for the mid-day) and the food was really excellent. This too could have competed for one of the best meals of our trip.

One of the surprises of the trip for me. The reason we wanted the visit was to see the caves which you hear so much about (although at this point we’d already been down at Charles Heidsieck and Veuve Cliquot). These were quite lovely too and there are surprises here that I quite liked in how they managed them. Everyone takes their own approach and with Ruinart I thought they did a great job of pulling out the ‘art’ in their name.

With the wine though I’ve always had ok associations but in general it isn’t a wine that I’ve spent much if any time focused on and I’m realizing that’s a mistake. This is a Chardonnay house which they are quite proud of and where their focus is. The Dom Ruinart especially are incredibly well made and just very classic styles and I was quite taken with them. I’d thought perhaps I might be more of a Pinot person but I am realizing that I am a fan of most all of the well made champagnes and have favorites across each of the grapes. Great experience.

The last part of our party arrived this afternoon and it was great to get to catch up on some of their crazy around the world trip over quite a tasty champagne before we headed off to dinner.

Restaurant execution was just excellent. My only question is where was the Croque Lobster a few days ago when we ate here. That was truly quite stunning. The wines won the show though and esp the Jamet which had another stunning showing.

Ah - what can I say. If there was one visit that was most important to me it would probably have been this one. I still remember the first time I had a Krug MV and it completely changed the way that I thought about champagne or the value in ‘spending money on bubbles’. So to see where it happens and meet people and learn more of the story was just exceptional. Krug ties everything to music and they do such an excellent job bringing the two sides together. This was a really special treat.

And an even bigger treat to get to pair the wines with food afterwards. Alas the chefs for Krug were working on their food project and out of the Domaine so we ended up going to a nearby restaurant (which I think might be too much under the radar - our meal was quite excellent). Wonderful afternoon with great conversation and food and wine.

If you look at our cellar the top two most represented makers are Krug and Chartogne Taillet so to try to do them both on the same day was a bit ambitious but scheduling was tougher than expected and so we ended up a bit more crunched. We unfortunately were a bit late to our appointment which meant we had to rush some. I most appreciated that we got to try some vin clairs. This isn’t something we had experienced before but it was a very cool experience to understand the different wines/terroirs/grapes. Alex was charming as informative as always. My only regret is it was too quick.

An institution I think in Reims and you can see why when you look at the list which seems to be a who’s who of the up and coming makers. Got some help from the bartender to figure out where we should go since I was less familiar with the wineries and I mostly wanted to try places that we didn’t know as well. I’d say mixed results, but it was good to experiment and I’d have loved to do more. Alas Les Printemps was the week before and so the list was quite a bit drunken down.

As for the food - if you like a good smashed burger (like me) then you would probably have enjoyed your food and I thought the meatball appetizers were also quite good. For those who like the big and thick and juicy style burger these are not that.

The only tour which truly went vineyard to production to aging to library. As we started a bit late and this was our day that was quite packed in I wouldn’t have minded if we’d skipped some of the more standard pieces but I really appreciated the chance to get to walk in Clos does Goisses and understand that part and how it feeds into the rest. Every time I have these wines I’m reminded that I really do enjoy them. They’re another producer probably too under the radar for me. Bigger house but also with a grower mentality. We’ll need to keep an eye out a bit more for them going forward. Unfortunate that we didn’t try any of the roses as I feel like those have especially been more interesting to me in the past.

Alas this was a very quick meal and I don’t think we gave it the time it deserved but this was also the day that we were trying to do a bit too much. Good food. Especially enjoyed the eggs and escargot.

Probably the more accurate description is a tour which shared both Piper and Rare but a tasting that focused truly on Rare. In 2018 a decision was made to make Rare its own brand but the execution of that is still in progress (and in fact in CT it would be quite impossible to find ‘Rare Champage’ if you searched and so having Piper as part of the name is very helpful). We were very lucky to try the pre-release 13 and here we learned just how much hype and potential the ‘13 has for some folks. I had not before this trip heard it compared to the ‘08 but it was quite an interesting tasting. I’m intrigued to see where these go.

Rare started in 1976 (so not as long of a history as the others which was part of the fun of seeing what exists with the other wines as well). 11 vintages released. I suppose ‘13 will make it 12. So they have been careful at holding back. I could imagine though that there might be more coming in these mid 2010’s.

It’s a champagne that splits me. On the one hand I think it has the bling appeal and marketing that is not for the serious wine lover and I imagine that is a decent amount of sales. On the other hand the wines are actually quite good and somewhat under-rated I think.

How to describe this? It was such a treat and it’s a huge thanks to many people for making it happen. Emmanuel is making some of the best wine in champagne quite clearly and as such I’m sure is totally overrun with requests. He said he mostly sees trade folks but it’s enjoyable for him to spend some time with the end consumer as well since that is often so much further away from his day to day. We spent many hours (in fact missed our dinner appointment but completely worth it). There is clear focus in these wines. They are more in the crowd where they need time to open and you can have a bottle one day and go back the next and it is perhaps even better. Small quantities and we got to try wines that I’ve never seen offered before. I love the entire line-up (including the Rose which are not his grapes but it’s still a really thoughtful wine). These are more for contemplative situations. Emmanuel himself is quite bright and despite it being perhaps our 13th or 14th tour I felt like I was still learning new things around the importance of humidity at different points in the process or the length of drop when wines are going into the press or even how to think about where in a vineyard each grape should be planted based on their preferences and sturdiness. Fascinating conversation. Didn’t hurt that the wines were some of my favorites of the trip.

We had to pull an audible with this one since we’d had such a great tasting with Emmanuel that we were not going to make our original reservation time and Le Why Not was not able to accommodate. Many thanks to the folks at Les Avises who found this place which was actually just kindof perfect for dinner. A bit of a Italian to mix up the French and very easy and laidback place but with great food.

One of the visits I was really looking forward to so I was perhaps not 100% happy that our driver did not arrive on time and we were late for the visit. Not a big deal as we didn’t miss too much that we had not already heard in previous sessions but still it felt a bit behind the eight ball. Also a larger tour that we joined (I am realizing that I’ve been very spoiled with our private tours but at this point I think I much prefer them - if you are with someone who knows what they are doing you can adjust script and focus and that really makes a difference). The wines are delicious as always. Interesting to see the different styles. Here it is all aged oak for that first year. Another thing I am learning with champagne - I like the variety and I like most all of the different styles. Happy to see I also liked a number of these that were more recent purchases.

Had to try the new place from the ‘old classic’ and so we booked this for lunch. We had a bit more fun with the wine list (the upside to a birthday). I probably preferred the food at the original a bit more but I was alone in that opinion and both were to my tastes quite good. Worth trying the fried shrimps to start. Great champagne pairing.

Champagne weather in April is perhaps not the best (to be fair we’ve heard that champagne weather in general is perhaps not the best) and this year was rainy and chilly and overall not mostly weather that you would like to be outside in with the one exception of my birthday afternoon. Sadly Guillaume was heading out of town and so what we’d hoped would be a Selosse tasting was instead an afternoon of raiding some wines from our French auction winnings + a really spectacular bottle of Rare from the domaine. Honestly maybe one of my favorite memories of the trip just sitting around and enjoying the sun and telling stories. A bit of a respite from a busy few days.

I’d say that for my birthday and a dinner at Les Avises/Selosse we were quite tame but that could also have been because we had started the morning at Larmandier Bernier and barely taken any time off. I think though we did this just about perfectly. Got a few more Lieux Dits under my belt (I think that I am really liking the Ay wines). Got to try Selosse with some more age which is almost impossible. And got to end with one of my favorites from Bordeaux. Overall all of the wine was excellent and I think I probably paid it more attention than the food although the food was good as well. A really special treat.

We will not be repeating use of our driver for this trip as for the second day in a row he was quite late and as a result we were quite late for our tasting and so it got a bit condensed. Rodolphe was charming as always and perhaps it was for the best as we basically stood around drinking champagne and listening to stories. I don’t think I came anywhere near doing them justice in what I captured. I did pick up a few nuggets.

Rodolphe is also a big fan of white Rhône’s and we talked a bit about the ‘dumb period’ that is so common for the whites from that region. He said that often it can be true of the champagnes as well and so sometimes when you think a bottle is ‘more advanced than you expected’ the correct answer is to let the rest lie and see how things go. Interesting insight as I haven’t heard that before but it does make sense.

Top terroir should be able to produce a wine in any vintage and when the goal is to share the terroir you should produce a wine in every vintage which is the best example of that vintage. A different POV but I buy in.

Rodolphe is quite brilliant and passionate and that has led to some really wonderful wines and collaborations and ideas.

The conservatory is very impressive and I think more front and center than I’ve ever seen it. It’s great because it makes it clear that the winemaking philosophy is quite focused on the terroir and vineyards. One thing I am noticing is if you have one of the great terroirs you talk a lot about it and the soil, etc. etc. and if you don’t you tend less to.

Overall a fantastic visit and a real treat.

This was maybe one of my bigger surprises in a positive way on the food. I thought it would likely be good but many of the dishes I think were quite great. The wine list was very thoughtful with some excellent options (they are deep in Rhone which I love). A really nice meal that we unfortunately had to rush to make it to our next appointment on time.

Perhaps a bit off the beaten track but I’ve been buying their wine from Envoyer for some years not and it works very well as a ‘house champagne’ and their higher end wine is something we’ve quite enjoyed (I remember once having a 1990 off the menu at Maialino a few years ago). So a winery that we’ll continue to keep an eye out for and fun to see the history (they make a lot of the house champagne for some pretty serious wine locations). Very classic blanc de blanc style.